The present disclosure relates to information technology (IT) systems and infrastructure, including operating system software, hardware, and networks, and to strategies and techniques employed in planning consolidation and/or configuration of technical infrastructure such as computer networks particularly allowing to estimate the business benefits of consolidation and/or rationalization of such infrastructure.
With the continued advances in technologies across the board, satisfying IT requirements often is an important consideration in improving and maintaining efficient operations of various activities across the globe and across industries. Due to economics and technologies prevailing at particular times in the past, many companies typically have adopted IT systems built on a distributed server-based computing model. This often led companies simply to add new servers (typically, a combination of physical computer and associated software) to meet growing computing needs as the companies grew organically, or through acquisitions and mergers. While incrementally growing such systems may have been effective in short-term, over time these practices have led to an inefficient accumulation of excess infrastructure. Companies tend to became saddled with excess servers, related components, and different platforms running on the servers with various proprietary software products.